Orr defends Detroit bankruptcy on national TV, says city 'dug this hole'

Jul. 21, 2013

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The prospect of a federal bailout for Detroit was put to rest by Gov. Rick Snyder and the city’s emergency manager, Kevyn Orr, during appearances on Sunday morning talk shows.

Snyder, appearing on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CBS’s “Face the Nation,” said throwing money at Detroit’s problems wasn’t the answer. He’d rather see the federal government put resources into targeted programs, such as demolishing abandoned homes.

“They can be an important partner in helping solve the problems,” he said on “Meet the Press.”

“We’ve operated under the assumption that we have to cure this problem on our own,” he said. “We’re not expecting the cavalry to come riding in. We dug this hole.

“If help comes, great. But I can’t stand around waiting for it to happen,” Orr added. “Do I think the country has a responsibility to help? Detroit has a responsibility to help itself.”

But Detroit Mayor Dave Bing, speaking on ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos,” said, “Not yet,” when asked whether he has asked for help from the federal government.

“I think it’s very difficult right now to ask for support,” Bing said. “I have gotten great support from this administration. I’ve got great support from a lot of the different departments within this administration. ... But now that we’ve done our bankruptcy filing, I think we’ve got to take a step back and see what’s next.”

The three men kept Detroit’s historic bankruptcy front and center in the national news with their appearances. The state has rarely gotten such prominent attention on Sunday talk shows. And it wasn’t necessarily the story that any of them wanted to convey about the city.

When Snyder was reminded by “Meet the Press” host David Gregory about his 2011 statements on not allowing bankruptcy for Detroit or any other Michigan city, Snyder replied that he had little choice.

“It’s not something I’m happy about to be in this situation,” he said. “But we need better services for the 700,000 people in Detroit. There were no other viable options.”

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And Orr said the problems have been growing for the past 60 years.

“Hope is not a strategy. I have to deal with realities,” he said.

Snyder, Orr and members of the “Meet the Press” roundtable alluded to Detroit’s history of bad management contributing to the problem.

New York Times columnist David Brooks said many other cities in the nation struggled through downturns in manufacturing without having to resort to bankruptcy. He attributed many of the problems to cronyism.

NBC newsman Chuck Todd added, “There was poor governance in Detroit for a very long time.”

And while not naming former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, who has been convicted of federal racketeering and corruption charges, Orr said, “There was a level of corruption from 2002-08 that helped to create this problem.”

Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm blamed congressional inaction in coming up with a national manufacturing strategy for some of the city’s problems.

“If we want Congress to act on anything, it is to keep and create middle-class jobs in America,” she said.

While there are creditors, bondholders and vendors at risk of losing millions in the bankruptcy, all of the talk shows focused on the city’s retirees and employees, who stand to lose a key component of their retirement. Pension payments to current retirees will continue untouched for six months, said Orr, but they are unlikely to remain untouched beyond that.

“There are probably going to be some adjustments. I’m highly sensitive to that. My mother is a pensioner,” he said. “I’m empathetic about the problem. But we don’t have a choice.”

It was not all gloom and doom on Sunday morning. Snyder talked about the revival occurring in the city with young people moving in and developers taking a gamble in Detroit.

“If you step back, this is an opportunity to stabilize and grow Detroit,” Snyder said.